RANDOM REMINDER

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32351, 17 July 1970, Page 19

RANDOM REMINDER

HEAR YE, HEAR YE

Football teams travelling away from home invariably set out with victory as the principal mission, although it must be admitted that there are sometimes secondary targets, like making a scientific survey of the area’s brewery products so a proper comparison can be made with the home variety. Occasionally, these two interests are in conflict; and so it was that the manager of a representative team visiting the West Coast issued an edict that all the players had to be in bed by a given and fairly early hour. One of the team, having

first acquired a little Dutch courage with the acceptance of some typically warm West Coast hospitality, sought out the manager to dispute the legality and advisability of this curfew. At that time the manager was with the captain, no doubt doing nothing more reprehensible than talking over tactics when the aggrieved player was heard approaching, in the company of another who shared the captain’s room. ? The manager took evasive action immediately, on the basis that a prolonged argument at that time of night would dd nobody any good. He dived under the second and

unoccupied bed. And he was there while the complainant pronounced sentence on him, in terse and urimistakeable terms; the

captain could give the speaker only half his attention, for he was frantically signalling his room-mate not to use his bed. But the message was never received; and the sleepy player, built on ample lines, flung himself full length on to the bed. It says much for the fortitude of the manager that he did not make a sound. But he had a hard time, next day, trying to explain his apparently broken back, when he had not even taken part in the training run.